


What I Never Knew I Always Wanted

by politics_and_prose



Series: All That Heaven Will Allow [6]
Category: Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-11
Updated: 2018-11-11
Packaged: 2019-08-22 07:59:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16593935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/politics_and_prose/pseuds/politics_and_prose
Summary: Katherine has a request for David.





	What I Never Knew I Always Wanted

**Author's Note:**

> So here's an extra long bit of mostly fluff for those Davey/Katherine lovers out there. :)
> 
> Please note that tuppenny is amazing and let know know that I’m not accurate on how David’s congregation members would feel about Joe’s religion in relation to Katherine.

Katherine hung up the phone calmly, shutting her eyes and taking deep breaths to make sure she didn’t fly off the handle. She’d been known to overreact from time to time, at least that’s what Sarah said, and Jack said, and David didn’t say but arched an eyebrow at when she denied, and she didn’t want to do that now. Not when she had something very important she had to ask of her boyfriend. 

“Who was that?” the man in question asked from the couch where he was reading a book that he’d assigned to his class.

“My mother,” she answered, moving into the kitchen and pouring a glass of juice. “I’d forgotten she even had my phone number.” 

“I thought the only person with our phone number was your editor,” Sarah snarked with a grin as she tugged on her coat.

“And where do you think you’re going this late, Miss Jacobs?” she asked, ignoring her friend’s comment.

“None of your business, Miss Plumber,” Sarah replied with a happy little grin. When she crossed her arms and arched a brow, Sarah huffed. “I’m going to see Micah,” she answered. “He’s with his mother tonight and with her injury, she can’t sew well.”

Katherine smirked. “Be on your best behavior.”

“Shouldn’t I be saying that to the two of you since you’re going to have this whole place to yourselves?”

Katherine wanted to point out that she and David rarely did more than let their hands wander to ribs and thighs when they kissed, but she was sure his sister would be much happier without knowing any details of their limited physical relationship.

She was also sure David would burn up from embarrassment if she mentioned anything at all about it.

“Go,” Katherine shooed, laughing. “Ring if you’re not going to be back tonight. I’ll be waiting up.”

Sarah blew a kiss to both of them, pouting when David didn’t even look up from his book, just “catching” the kiss in the air and giving her a little wave, and then left, closing and locking the apartment door behind her.

“Seems like she and Micah are getting serious,” Katherine said casually as she grabbed a book of her own and joined David on the couch. “Meeting Micah’s mother and all.”

“She’s the one who set them up,” he said without looking up. “They go to the same temple as our family. We’ve known them since we were kids. Nice family.”

“Is that something that happens often in your religion? Getting set up by family members?”

“Yes and no,” David answered, closing the book and looking up at her. “It’s not a huge community and we tend to marry within the same religion. It’s just easier, I guess, to meet someone at temple. That way it’s less awkward. But kind of more awkward too,” he added thoughtfully.

“How so?” Katherine asked, curious.

“Because if you marry someone from temple, there’s always a _bubbie_ there to spread everything she knows, and sometimes what she doesn’t know, about your relationship with all the other _yentas_ around. Poor Les will be going through the rumor mill soon, I’m sure. He’s almost sixteen now. Which it vaguely horrifying.”

It struck Katherine that David didn’t talk about the women at his temple trying to set him up. She wondered if it was a sore topic, but decided to throw caution to the wind and ask anyway. “What about you?” she asked, not addressing the fact that Les was almost the same age David was when they met. “Do they try to set you up?”

“No,” David answered with a chuckle. “They know I have someone.” He leaned over, a smile on his lips, and gave her a kiss. “They don’t mess with that.”

“Even though I’m not Jewish?” Considering what David had said before about Jewish people usually marrying other Jewish people, it shocked Katherine that there wasn’t someone trying to find him someone else.

“Your father is,” he shrugged, going back to his book. “That’s good enough for them.” 

Brows furrowed, Katherine reached out and took his book so he would have to focus on her again. “How do you know my father’s Jewish?”

David just smiled at her. “My family is from the same area as your father’s family. I can’t say they knew each other in the Old Country but maybe they did. It’s just a name my parents knew before they came here – I think maybe my mother’s family knew of one if your great grandfather’s shops?” He shrugged. “My mother’s family were farmers outside of _Makowa_.”

“This is eerie,” Katherine said, eyes wide. “Our families could have known each other?”

David just – infuriatingly – shrugged again. “Possibly. I don’t really know. All I know is your father was raised Jewish.” He licked his lips. “And he didn’t marry a Jewish woman anyway, so it’s – we don’t _always_ marry into our own religion.”

It struck her then why he never really brought up anything about the women at his temple trying to find a suitable wife for him; he didn’t want to talk about marriage with her. She didn’t think it was because he didn’t want to marry her, that wasn’t it at all. For them, it was too soon to discuss marriage. David was still in school and they’d only been together for eight months. Talking of marriage before they’d even really had to endure family events with the other’s parents and siblings was getting ahead of themselves.

But her stomach did do a little flip, she thought it was in excitement or anticipation, when she remembered the phone call from her mother and what it had been about.

“Okay,” she said finally, agreeing to drop the slightly uncomfortable topic without any further comment. “Can I ask a favor?”

“Can I have my book back?” he countered as he turned his body towards her, smiling and resting his hand on her knee.

“Maybe if you say yes to my favor.”

David laughed and she could see the wrinkle lines in the corners of his eyes. They fascinated her. By all measures, David really didn’t have that much to laugh about when they’d first met. His father was out of work, he and his brother had to drop out of school, he’d gotten caught up in a _strike_ , of all things, and there were threats against him to throw him into jail, though she didn’t know if he even knew about that.

But still, he’d smiled and laughed and carried on with the newsboys. Now, just a few years later, he had happy laugh lines around his eyes. She liked to think one or two of them were because of her.

“All right,” he agreed. “What’s this favor?”

“Well,” she answered, suddenly nervous, “it was my mother who called.” At his nod, she continued, “And she asked that we come over for dinner next weekend.”

David blinked. “Come over as in me go to your parents’ house?”

He didn’t seem completely against it the way she knew Jack would have, but she could tell that he was hesitant. To be honest, she was hesitant too. Her family, while not as large as some, was still borderline excessive. There were seven children in all, though Lucy had passed away a couple of years ago, before the strike. Ralph and Joe Junior were married with children of their own, Constance was engaged, but Edith and Herbert still lived at home. The way her mother had described the ordeal, however, led Katherine to believe that everyone would be there. 

“Yes,” she answered, her voice stronger and more confident than she felt. “With my parents and my siblings. And possibly their families. Mother was a little vague on that but, uh, I think Edith mentioned to her that I’ve been seeing someone for quite a while and my mother decided it was time to, um, introduce you.”

David took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She was worried he might be upset that she hadn’t told her family about their relationship. It wasn’t as if she was ashamed, she loved him, it was just that her family was _a lot_ and she _loved him_.

“So your father’s about to find out we’re seeing each other?”

His face was twisted into some combination of discomfort and reluctance and it made her both sag with relief and laugh. “I’m afraid so,” she acknowledged with a nod. “If you decide to go, that is.”

“Well of course I’m going,” he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “I’ll just need to, y’know, get something nice to wear. And practice not saying really ridiculous things when I’m nervous.” He paused. “How many brothers do you have again?”

She laughed, taking his hand and tugging him close so she could kiss him. “Three.” He groaned and she laughed harder.

\-- 

David tugged on his jacket again as he and Katherine approached the front door of her family’s estate. Katherine kept trying to calm him but it wasn’t really working. No matter how many times she assured him that her father held no grudges about the strike, he still replayed the moment where he _yelled at Joseph Pulitzer_ when he was sixteen years old.

He just _knew_ Joe would look at him the same way he had then.

“David,” she chastised softly, “stop. It’s going to be okay. It’s just dinner.”

“With your family,” he muttered. “With your _father_.”

“He’ll be able to tell if you’re nervous, you know. They all will.”

David knew that, of course. He’d also been that brother looking to intimidate the man his sister was seeing. His parents were too nice, he didn’t think anyone would find them intimidating, but he’d tried hard with some of Sarah’s boyfriends. The only problem was, he was the least intimidating person in their family. Tonight, though, he would be having dinner with one of the most powerful men in New York along with his kids, grandkids, and wife.

David tugged on his jacket again.

“Stop it,” Katherine told him again, this time with a little chuckle. She took his hand and knocked on the door. “You’re going to be fine.”

An older woman in a black dress with an apron answered the door and Katherine smiled widely. “Hello, Greta.”

Greta, obviously an employee of the household, smiled and welcomed Katherine before looking him over. With an arched brow and a smirk, she greeted him and invited them in.

“She’s been with the family for as long as I can remember,” Katherine whispered to him. “When I was younger, she would bring her children over to play with me, Edith and Herbie.”

“Good memories?” he asked, loving the fond smile on her face.

“Some of the best,” she agreed.

“Katherine, darling!”

David looked up to where the voice came from and he was struck by how beautiful the woman who stood at the top of the stairs was. She had dark hair, pulled back into a neat style, and was wearing a beautiful dark blue dress. As she approached, he could tell that Katherine’s features were a close mirror of her mother’s.

“Mother,” his girlfriend said fondly, approaching Mrs. Pulitzer and hugging her tightly. It was jarring to see how different Katherine’s mother and father were. “It’s good to see you.”

“You get more beautiful all the time,” the older woman said, pulling back a bit and looking over at him. “And who is this?”

Katherine reached out for his hand and he took it, stepping closer to her.   “Mother, this is David Jacobs.”

“Pleasure to meet you, ma’am,” he said, smiling at her.

She just looked at him for a few beats before wrapping her arms around him in a welcoming hug. His eyes were wide as he slowly returned the embrace, though they narrowed when his girlfriend hid her giggle behind her hand. A little warning about exactly how different her parents were would have been nice.

“David. Look at how handsome you are. Tell me about yourself.”

Mrs. Pulitzer wrapped her hand around his arm and started leading him deeper into the house, Katherine following behind, giggling softly. She had to have known this would happen. Even though he really liked knowing what to expect when he went into new situations, he was okay with this surprise. He just hoped Joe wasn’t going to be on the other extreme.

He searched his mind for something interesting to say. “I’m a student teacher right now,” he started, “and next school term I’ll be fully qualified and able to teach a class on my own.”

“David teaches second graders right now. And sometimes he goes to the newsboys lodging house in Lower Manhattan to teach those kids to read,” Katherine interjected.

“Oh? Were you a newsboy when you were younger?” Mrs. Pulitzer asked with interest.

David shot a look to Katherine, who just smiled and lifted her shoulder in a shrug.

“Yes, ma’am. When I was sixteen and part of seventeen. Then I went back to school. My little brother was a newsie too – he was more reluctant to go back to school but he did. He’s sixteen now,” he said, finding himself more comfortable with speaking to his girlfriend’s mother.

“And you have a sister as well, right? Sarah?”

Katherine cleared her throat and Mrs. Pulitzer stopped walking. He looked over to her and saw her turning a dusty shade of pink. He was confused for a moment before Katherine burst out laughing and her mother followed. “I – uh, is everything okay?”

“You’re not very good at this, Mother,” Katherine said. She turned to him and smiled. “So maybe my mother knows more about us than I previously mentioned.”

“As in she told me everything after your first date,” Mrs. Pulitzer added with a grin. “Katherine just wanted to have a bit of fun with you. Ease you into the evening before my husband arrived for dinner.”

“Oh she did, did she?” he asked, narrowing his eyes at his girlfriend. She laughed and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Sounds exactly like something she would do.”

“I just know you planned out how you were going to approach certain topics and I wanted to give you a chance to actually get through it. “ She turned to her mother. “David’s a _planner_.”

Mrs. Pulitzer laughed. “You did very well. But I assure you, there’s nothing to be nervous about. And, to put you a little further at ease, it’ll just be the four of us, plus Edith and Herbert tonight. We’ll save the whole family for another occasion.”

David felt himself relax a little bit. He would only have to deal with _one_ brother tonight. He figured that would be enough given that he also had to somehow impress Joseph Pulitzer enough that he didn’t attempt to put an end to his relationship with Katherine before the main course.

Mrs. Pulitzer excused herself to go check on dinner preparations and Katherine moved over to take his hand. “She adores you,” his girlfriend promised before leaning up and pressing a kiss to his cheek. “Not as much as I do, of course." 

David relaxed a little more. “You really told her about me?”

“That’s what girls do, David,” she chuckled. “But, and this is honest, I haven’t told my father I’m seeing you. He knows I’m seeing _someone_ , but not who.”

He took a deep breath and nodded. “Okay. And, y’know, maybe he won’t even remember me.” She gave him a look and he rolled his eyes. “I know, I know. I’m supposed to be the realist. But I gotta hold on to a little hope that he won’t remember me standing in his office and yelling at him.”

“Oh, he’ll definitely remember it, whether he mentions it or not. But I’m not sure that’s a bad thing. You were proud and were standing up for what you believed in. But that was years ago. You’ve both grown up since then,” she smiled. “Oh, but I wanted to give you a warning. His sight and hearing aren’t as good as they were so don’t be surprised if he shouts. A lot. It’s just how he speaks now – he’s not angry.”

David nodded. He’d overheard Katherine telling Sarah about the struggles her father was going through but he hadn’t brought them up with his girlfriend because she hadn’t brought them up with him. It bugged him a little bit because her father was a big part of her life, but he supposed since he and Joe didn’t have the best relationship years ago, it wasn’t something he needed to know until necessary.

Now, it was necessary.

“Okay,” he nodded. “You’ll let me know if he actually yells at me, right? I need to make sure I have the appropriate reaction to what he says.”

“You’re worrying about nothing. Everything is going to be fine. Just – don’t shoot peas back at Herbie if he shoots them at you first. He’ll try to get a rise out of you, much in the way Jack or Race do, so just let it go. I’ll kick him under the table for you,” she added with a grin.

He loved Katherine’s confidence that he would be accepted by her family, but he wasn’t quite as sure as she was. He was awkward at best when meeting new people, and while he’d met Mr. Pulitzer – _not Joe_ , he reminded himself, _he’s your girlfriend’s father_ – before, it was in a very different situation.

“Kitty, dinner’s ready, so grab your boy and let’s eat,” a younger male voice called from the doorway.

“Don’t call me _Kitty_ ,” Katherine spat in the kid’s direction. “That’s Herbert,” she told him, “and he’s going to get what’s coming to him.”

The boy stuck his tongue out and disappeared into what David assumed was the dining room. “So basically I should just pretend it’s Race sitting across the table from me tonight?” he asked with a grin.

“That would probably be easiest,” she agreed before leaning up and pressing a gentle kiss to his lips. “Let’s go. It’s going to be fine.”

David nodded even as his stomach swirled. All he had to do was not let his nerves get the best of him and everything would be just fine.

Katherine led him into the dining room where Herbert and Mrs. Pulitzer were already seated and who David assumed was Edith was entering from a side door. Mr. Pulitzer wasn’t there yet but he knew they wouldn’t have been called if he wasn’t on his way.

They were directed to sit so he pulled out a chair for Katherine and then sat beside her. His eyes were drawn to the place settings and he couldn’t help but wonder what it was like to own so many different sizes of forks. Honestly, he only thought there was two.

“There you are.”

David looked up to see Joseph Pulitzer sweep into the room. Immediately, he stood. He got an odd look from Katherine but it had been an involuntary reflex.

Joe stopped and looked at him, eyes narrowed. “You must be the boyfriend.”

“Joe!”; “Father!”; and Herbert just snickered.

“Yes, sir,” he said, extending his hand. “David Jacobs.”

“David Jacobs,” Joe repeated, his hand stretching out to shake David’s. “You seem familiar to me. Have we met before?”

Swallowing down his nerves, David nodded. “Yes, sir. Just once, a few years ago.”

“Did you intern at The World?”

David could hear Herbert start snickering – so he must have known – and could see Katherine shifting in her seat. “No, sir. I was a newsboy, uh, back in 1899.”

Joe kept his eyes on him for a long moment before sitting and draping his napkin over his lap. “I assume you’re no longer in that line of business.”

David sat as well, fighting himself to not reach out and take Katherine’s hand.   He knew he could do this, make a good impression on Joe, be accepted. He _knew_ he could. “No, sir. I’m finishing up my student teaching. Next term I’ll be qualified for my own class.”

“David expects to be hired at the school he’s working at now,” Katherine interjected. “His students all really like him and he gets along well with the other teachers and administrators.”

“A teacher,” Joe repeated. “There’s not much money in that field. How do you plan to provide for my daughter on an educator’s salary?”

“Father.”

David had expected this particular question from Joe, so he simply laid his hand over Katherine’s. “I think Katherine would be quite angry with me if I tried to provide for her. As I’m sure you’re aware, your daughter is fiercely independent. It’s one of the many things I love about her. That said,” he added, “I think with her incredible writing skills, and my salary, once we get to that point, the point of, um, providing for each other, we’ll be fine.”

Joe clicked his tongue against his teeth but simply nodded. 

The opening course of salad was served and David let out a breath. He was still tense but he felt as if he’d passed the first real test of the evening. He sat quietly as Katherine caught up with her sister and Herbert talked about his schoolwork. He was older than Les but seemed to enjoy his education the same amount: not at all.

“How is our mutual friend Mr. Kelly?” Joe asked as the salads were taken away.

“He’s fine,” David answered after a short pause. “He’s enjoying his job. It seems when you offered it to him, he found his true calling.”

“I’ve heard good things,” Joe concluded before turning to Katherine and asking her about work.

David’s eyes found Mrs. Pulitzer’s and she smiled at him. It was encouraging to have her on his side. At least he was pretty sure she was on his side. She’d been nothing but nice to him, aside from the slight trick when they first met, but that was probably for his own good. Katherine had a way of orchestrating exactly what he needed even when he didn’t know he needed it.

The meal went smoothly from that point. Mrs. Pulitzer – “ _Kate, darling, please!_ ” – asked him questions about his family, Edith asked a little more about his job and Herbert asked him what it was like to go to college. They made him feel like he actually belonged there. One of his major fears coming into the evening was that he wouldn’t fit in, that her family would see the lower class boy who’d once been a newsie, not the man who was grown and starting a real career. Aside from a few seconds where Joe questioned him, he hadn’t felt like that kid at all.

“You’ll _have_ to come to our July Fourth party,” Kate said after the plates had been cleared. “We host it in the garden and we have fireworks. The Mayor and several council members come by.”

“Bill and Darcy usually come too,” Katherine added. “And we can invite your family as well!”

He chuckled a little nervously, patting Katherine’s hand. “We’ll see about them. I’d be glad to come though.”

While him meeting her family and her meeting his seemed fine, mixing them wasn’t exactly in the plans yet. His father was a proud man and just the thought of Joseph Pulitzer looking down his nose at him made David feel sick to his stomach. He wouldn’t stop them from going if they wanted to but he would definitely make sure to prepare them.

“Good,” Kate said with a bright smile, and it reminded him so much of Katherine’s that he was immediately at ease.

The evening had gone better than he’d expected it to, and with the meal concluded, he was left with the feeling that Joe wasn’t going to object to his relationship with Katherine. In fact, it seemed almost as if Joe didn’t mind it at all.

\--

She hugged her parents and siblings goodbye then smiled as David did the same with his mother and sister. Her heart skipped when he gave Herbie a high five and then her father a strong handshake. She kept her eyes on them a second longer than she should have but she was glad she did. 

Her father placed a hand on David’s shoulder and gave him a single nod before excusing himself. Katherine wanted to both laugh and cry at the same time. She hadn’t expected her father to be so accepting of David so quickly but the relief she felt blew any of her wildest dreams out of the water.

Katherine wrapped her hand around David’s elbow as they left and she felt herself relax a bit with every step they took away from the house. It felt like a dream. She worried briefly that someone would open the door and yell out that they’d all been faking it and David wasn’t welcome back.

The call never came.

“Would you like to walk through the park before I get you home on time for your curfew with my sister?” David asked with a grin.

She smacked his arm, grinning as well, but agreed. “That sounds nice.”

They walked quietly for a while, both decompressing from the meal they’d shared with her family. She really liked that he wasn’t someone who always needed to have a conversation flowing. In fact, she thought she was probably more like that than he was.

They turned a corner into an unpopulated part of the trail and she was caught off guard when he tugged her close and pressed his lips to hers.

The kiss was more passionate than they’d ever shared in a public place but she was definitely not complaining. Her arms wrapped around his neck as his hands pressed against the small of her back and they kissed as if they needed that connection to live.

Katherine had no idea how long they stood there like that but when they finally eased back, her lips were warm and stinging and his were pink with her lipstick and swollen. She chuckled and ran her thumb over them. “What was that for?”

“I just really love you,” he told her, leaning down to kiss her again, this time softly and quickly. “I love you.” 

“I love you too,” she promised, wrapping her arms around him in a hug. “Thank you for tonight.”

“I didn’t do anything special,” David whispered. 

“And yet you won everyone over. Must just be you.” She pulled back and gave him a smile. “Tonight went really well.”

“It did,” he agreed. He pushed some hair from her face and kissed her once more before taking her hand again. “Let’s keep going. I want as much time as I can get with you before I need to return you to my sister for the night.”

“Me too,” she agreed. “Before you leave me with her and you go get interrogated by your nosey best friend about how things went with my father.”

David groaned but followed it with a chuckle. “Help me come up with some sensational story to get him going for a while before I let him in on the truth.”

Laughing, Katherine let her imagination start to spin a story that would leave Jack sitting slack-jawed. A little hyperbole never hurt anyone.

 


End file.
